Contact elements are often used in housings and retained by them. In order to retain a contact element in a housing of a plug type connector in a secure manner, for instance, positive-locking connections are used, with either a portion of a housing protruding into an opening of the contact element or a portion of the contact element protruding into an opening in the housing of the plug type connector. Since contact elements are often manufactured with thin-walled material, for example, using bending/punching technologies, the materials generally have a low resisting force with respect to undesirable release of the contact element from the housing. Often the contact elements or the housing become damaged when the contact element is inserted or released. A further problem with these known contact elements is that, when they are used in plug type connectors have sealing elements, the insertion or removal of the contact element in/from the plug type connector through the sealing element leads to damage of the sealing element. Accordingly, maintenance or replacement of the contact element results in increased use of material and cost.